instructions for authors

TRAMA is an electronic academic journal published semi-annual by the Technological Institute of Costa Rica’s School of Social Sciences.

The journal’s aims are:

1: To create a common space for theoretical, methodological, and praxis-based discussions within the social sciences, in confluence with both the humanities and natural sciences.

2: To communicate the knowledge produced through teaching, research, and the interconnections between the social sciences, the humanities, and the natural sciences.

3: To reflect critically and constructively on the socio-ecological and epistemological implications of both the scientific and the technological production of power and knowledge by subjects in different geographical locations and historical moments in the context of the Caribbean Basin, Latin America and the relationship between these regions and the larger World-System.

The journal is aimed at researchers, science promoters, university teachers, college students, and also the general public.

TRAMA is a free open-access journal. Authors are invited to submit their manuscripts without incurring any economic cost, both for the processing of their submissions and, if selected, for their publication.

Submission requirements:

Papers must be original and unpublished works and must not be under evaluation by any other publication.

All submissions must include a title page, a brief abstract along with and a list of keywords on a separate page. Both of these pages must be prepared both in Spanish and a second language (English, French or Portuguese).

Submitted papers must have a clear introduction, theoretical context, discussion of methodology, results, and a clear conclusion and/or recommendations for further research, as well as, a list of bibliographic references and acknowledgments (if applicable).

Manuscripts’ length should be between 15 and 25 1.5 line spaced pages, in Arial 12 point font, justified, and with one inch margins (2.54 cm margins). All first lines of new paragraphs should be indented.

Manuscripts must be submitted as Microsoft Word documents

Paper titles must be relevant, descriptive, attractive, direct and clear, in both Spanish and in the selected second language (English, French or Portuguese).

On the title page, please indicate below the paper’s title the name(s) and surname(s) of the author(s) (in alphabetical order or according to the contribution of each person), as well as the author(s)’ profession and institutional affiliation, city, country, postal and e-mail address.

Key words and abstract should be presented in Spanish and in a second language (English, French or Portuguese). The keywords (three at most) ought to be representative of the paper and should not repeat the words of the title (please use synonyms to improve the paper´s positioning for internet search). The abstract should be between 200 and 250 words; abstracts should concisely summarize the paper’s main research question/argument, the paper’s scope and purpose, as well as the methods employed, and the chief findings, along with the main conclusion.

Images (if applicable) must be submitted in a separate file. In case of scanned images, the minimum resolution should be 300 ppi. The allowed formats are: .jpg, .tiff, .eps, .psd and .ai.

Mathematical formulas and equations (if applicable) must be written with the Microsoft Office Equation Editor or MathType.

Where applicable, the International System of Units shall be used.

All references should appear at the end of the document, alphabetically ordered by the surname of the author, according to the APA (American Psychological Association) format (edition 2010), which establishes the following:

Printed book: Author’s surname and initials. (Publication year). Title of the book. Place of publication. Editorial.

Electronic book: Author’s surname and initials. (Publication year). Title of the book. Retrieved from http: //

Printed journal article: Author’s surname and initials. (Publication year). Title of the article. Title of the journal, Volume (Number), Page numbers.

Electronic journal article: Author’s surname and initials. (Publication year). Title of the article. Title of the journal, Volume (Number), Page numbers.Retrieved from http: //

Electronic newspaper article: Author’s surname and initials (Publication date: day/month/year). Title of the article. Title or the newspaper.Retrieved from http: //

The Editorial Board will give preference to papers that meet all of the above requirements.

First, every manuscript will be assessed for its thematic suitability by the members of the Editorial Board and the Editor-in-Chief.

If a submission meets the thematic and formal requirements of the journal, it will then be double blind peer reviewed by two external expert referees. These external readers will anonymously determine whether the paper should be published as is, if it merits publication with some suggested edits/changes or other considerations, or if it does not merit publication.

In cases where the two referees disagree on whether or not a manuscript should be published, the paper will be sent to a third anonymous referee for a final decision. The results of this academic report shall in all such cases be final.

If the paper is approved for publication, the author must authorize the Technological Institute of Costa Rica’s School of Social Sciences to include the paper in the journal by writing a Letter of Assignment of Rights and Originality, so that the paper can be edited, reproduced, displayed and distributed through printed and electronic media under the Creative Commons license.

Once the letter of Assignment of Rights and Originality has been received, stylistic or philological revisions will begin. At this point the reviewer’s recommendations will be sent to the author for approval or correction.

Subsequently the article will be diagrammed in the journal´s format using the figures provided by the author.

At this point the electronic version will be published on the journal´s website (http://revistas.tec.ac.cr/trama). Additionally, the work will at this point be considered for possible printed publication.